UZBEKISTAN AND IRAN DRAW IN OPENING MATCH OF ARC DIV III WEST

In a match dominated by the home side in the first half, Iran’s Mehdi Golnari scored the visitors second try from sustained forward pressure with two minutes left on the clock in the match to draw Iran level at 13 – 13 and give their captain, Jalal Jahanbakhsh the opportunity to steal the most unlikeliest of wins with his conversion attempt in the final play. But the conversion attempt fell agonisingly short and spared the home sides blushes.

Uzbekistan slowly asserted their dominance in the first half through a penalty to captain, Maxim Lofontov before a try by half back Doston Arzikulov and the successful conversion by Lifontov saw the home side going into the half time break with a healthy 13 – 3 lead.

And the dominance continued for the home side early in the second half as they continued to find gaps in the Iran’s defence. But unfortunately, the last pass on a number of occasions was either knocked on or went forward causing frustrations for the home side as they searched for that ultimate nail in the coffin.

With time elapsing, Iran found another gear and decided to chance their arm more moving the ball wider to their speedy backs, retained possession and through their winger, Ali Yaghoti, scored in the corner, and give the visitors a sniff.

The 13 – 13 result now sees the tournament move to match day 2 where Iran will take on Lebanon as Uzbekistan sit aside and watch with interest before the final match of the round-robin tournament versus Lebanon next Friday.